some trasnparency help needed

http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/u...l/P3014173.jpg

I need to make that transparent so that i can put him on any background without the whitish background.

I know how to do this a few ways...

zooming in and erasing the area around him

using color range, but that always seems to take out more than i want, and if i put him on a colored background it will show the color where the white used to be, making him look fruity...

these methods all take forever!! does anyone know the most effective way to make something like that transparent? i wanna get these done a little faster.